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The 2015 general election in Ethopia was widely seen as a non-event at worst and an event the outcome of which – the victory of the ruling EPRDF party – was preordained at best. And it did indeed win (with the hegemonic party taking 100 % of the seats). For opposition parties, however, the 2015 election was a major turning-point. This was especially so for those belonging to what I refer to as the liberal multinational opposition, which had enjoyed historic success in the 2005 election. For the parties belonging to this opposition, the EPRDF’s total victory in 2015 represented the end of a dream, that of joining forces to reproduce the electoral success of 2005. The present article seeks to explain this failure and draw lessons regarding the nature and operation of the Ethiopian party system particularly in what regards the unremitting fragmentation of this political current since the beginning of the 1990s and the relevance of conceiving the Ethiopian party system along a multinational/ ethnonational cleavage outside of which any alliance seems jeopardized.